Now here is yet another wonder weapon of the Iranians you can game with. Robert

Iran's Guard gets first squadrons of flying boats– 1 hr 18 mins ago

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran's state TV says the country's powerful Revolutionary Guard has received its first three squadrons of radar-evading flying boats.

The report says the domestically made craft can be used for surveillance and can carry guns and transmit data. Its production is part of Iran's effort to boost its arsenal and military capabilities despite international sanctions over the country's controversial nuclear program.

Iran announced last year it had successfully tested the plane, dubbed the Bavar-2, or Confidence-2. A flying boat is a seaplane with a hull that allows it to land and travel on water.

State TV broadcast footage Tuesday of the small craft in operation in the air and sea.

When it said "flying boat", I figured a modernized Catalina. These look more like surface-effect vehicles, which fly at a maximum altitude of two wingspans. And the Russians were working on them as fast heavy transports in the early '90s (theirs were the size of transport planes). The problem with these things is if the wave height exceeds some rather placid numbers (mildly choppy), they lose lift and drop onto the water, which causes severe drag at best and all sorts of hydrofoil race crackup badness at worst. Radar can see them just fine, it's how the navy finds surface boats.

Note it doesn't say stealth. It says radar evading. They are hard to pull out of sea chop because they aren't in it. However without standoff weapons and their slow speed I expect they will be short lived against a 1st world force. Might be useful against Azerbaijani fishing boats though, if the fishing crew is asleep at the start of the attack

By the looks of these things, they'd be lucky to mount an LMG on it and stay airborne. I can't imagine these would be good for anything other than surveillance. I'd bet an Apache or Cobra could be used for intercepts

"Radar evading" means either "flies under the radar" or "is made out of wood." Could they mount sensors on a platform like that, specifically something to help guide SSM's to American carrier battle groups?

It's possible to mount sensors on that small a platform. Where the they'd get sensors worth the effort is another matter. Still, I give the Iranians points for trying to develop an arms industrt of their own. In time, they may well develop some interesting and useful ideas. In the mean time, I could see this being useful as a patrol craft of some sort, possibly in some sort of tripwire scenario.

Anybody else think the Iranian Photoshop artists are at it again? Taking one and multiplying it by a factor of 10?

I doubt anyone at the Pentagon is quaking in their boots over this new wonder weapon. The only one wondering will be the pilot when he asks himself how he got into this mess when he is asked to fly against opposition that shoots back.

Would be a cool mini for gaming though.

Next they will be arming ultralites and paragliders like in the Bond movies.

Any surprise the HR Puffnstuf and Zardoz were made in the same decade?

EDIT: From Wiki: H.R. Pufnstuf is a children's television series produced by Sid and Marty Krofft in the United States. It was the first Krofft live-action, life-size puppet program.[1] There were seventeen episodes of the show originally broadcast from September 6, 1969 to September 4, 1971. It was so successful that NBC kept it on the Saturday morning schedule for a full three seasons until August 1972, when it was cancelled. The show was shot in Paramount Studios and its opening was shot in Big Bear Lake, California.

Zardoz is a 1973 science fiction/fantasy film written, produced, and directed by John Boorman. It stars Sean Connery, Charlotte Rampling, and Sara Kestelman. Zardoz was Connery's second post-James Bond role (after The Offence). The film was shot by cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth on a budget of US$1 million.

These are likely wood/fiberglass and therefore the engine is the largest thing that will generate a radar return – and what a return it'll be with that flat radiator. About as dangerous as a Cessna 172, but overrated.

Any helo with a door gunner would be a threat to these things. You could possibly mount a missile on it much as we do with our Predators, but the sea spray would probably toast the electronics.

Oh yes we did get it in the UK it was crap like this, and Banana Splits, that Noel Edmunds Saturday Swap Shop and Tiswas were developed to replace.

adub74 you do realise that I have spent about an hour bringing up old TV themes and researching what happened to the cast of various kids shows of the period? I don't know wether to thank or curse you! ;-P

Guys if you have fond memories of girls or women from those shows DON'T repeat DON'T look them up now. If they were as pretty as our hormone charged pubescent memory says, and many weren't, they probably haven't aged well. :-(

I doubt a Revolutionary Guardsman would defect anywhere, certainly not the Sunni-dominated states that surround Iran.

They look like single-seaters, so the pilot would have to take his hands off the controls to use an RPG or anything else shooty. Besides, if it was good for anything offensive, you know Radio Tehran would be threatening the enemies of Allah with it. All it's good for is flying out to look at something, starting to report by radio, and then getting shot down.

Ok, so I can see these being used to get into range to deliver an anti-ship missile on the outer edge of radar capabilities, using them as more of a first strike weapon before a fleet comes within range of coastal launchers.

The problem with the idea is that defense satalites probably know where these are kept and can relay to the fleet in real time when a flock of these are heading their direction. I also can't help but think the coordinates of the moorings or hangers where these are located are now listed in the fire control system on whatever Boomer patrols under the Persian Gulf. Just more stuff for the Navy to blow up if the time comes

Boomers, no. Attack boats with Tomahawks on board, you betcha. But that craft doesn't look robust enough to carry an anti-ship missile (a Harpoon weighs 1,523 lb, according to Wikipedia), so it isn't much of a direct threat. As I suggested earlier, its role is probably that of providing targeting data to the land-based missiles that Iran has already announced, with great Photoshopping skill.

Meanwhile, the rest of the world trembles at the realization that, in spite of sanctions and world isolation, Iranian scientists have successfully reverse-engineered the Liberty engine.